Clinton served in the
French and Indian War, rising to the rank of lieutenant in the colonial militia. He began a legal practice after the war and served as a district attorney for
New York City. He became Governor of New York in 1777 and remained in that office until 1795. Clinton supported the cause of independence during the
American Revolutionary War and served in the
Continental Army despite his gubernatorial position. During and after the war, Clinton was a major opponent of
Vermont's entrance into the Union due to disputes over land claims.

Clinton was again tapped as the Democratic-Republican vice presidential nominee in the
1804 election, as President
Thomas Jefferson dumped
Aaron Burr from the ticket. Clinton sought his party's presidential nomination in the
1808 election, but the party's
congressional nominating caucus instead nominated
James Madison. Despite his opposition to Madison, Clinton was re-elected as vice president. Clinton died in 1812, leaving the office of vice president vacant for the first time in U.S history. Clinton's nephew,
DeWitt Clinton, continued the Clinton New York political dynasty after his uncle's death.

Early life

Clinton was born in 1739 in
Little Britain,
Province of New York. His parents were Colonel
Charles Clinton and Elizabeth Denniston Clinton,
Presbyterian immigrants who had left
County Longford,
Ireland, in 1729 to escape an Anglo-Irish regime that imposed severe disabilities on religious dissenters. His political interests were inspired by his father, who was a farmer, surveyor, and land speculator, and served as a member of the New York colonial assembly.[2] George Clinton was the brother of General
James Clinton and the uncle of New York's future governor,
DeWitt Clinton. George was tutored by a local Scottish clergyman.

French and Indian War service

During the
French and Indian War he first served on the privateer Defiance operating in the Caribbean,[3] before enlisting in the provincial militia, where his father held the rank of Colonel. During the
French and Indian War George rose to the rank of
Lieutenant, accompanying his father in 1758 on
Bradstreet's 1758 seizure of
Fort Frontenac, cutting one of the major communication and supply lines between the eastern centres of Montreal and Quebec City and France's western territories. He and his brother James were instrumental in capturing a French vessel.[4]

Political career

Coat of Arms of George Clinton

His father's survey of the New York frontier so impressed the provincial governor (also named
George Clinton, and "a distant relative"[3]) that he was offered a position as sheriff of New York City and the surrounding county in 1748. After the elder Clinton declined the honor, the governor later designated George as successor to the Clerk of the Ulster County Court of Common Pleas, a position he would assume in 1759 and hold for the next 52 years.[5]

After the war, he read law in New York City under the attorney William Smith. He returned home (which at that time was part of Ulster County) and began his legal practice in 1764. He became district attorney the following year.[2] He was a member of the
New York General Assembly for
Ulster County from 1768 to 1776, aligned with the anti-British Livingston faction.[6] His brother James was a member of the
Provincial Convention that assembled in New York City on April 20, 1775.

Revolutionary War

A month after the first open armed conflict in Lexington, the Continental Congress resolved on May 25, 1775, to build fortifications in the Hudson highlands for the purpose of protecting and maintaining control of the Hudson River. James Clinton and Christopher Tappan, lifetime residents of the area, were sent to scout appropriate locations.

Wartime governor

In December 1775 the New York Provincial Congress commissioned him brigadier general in the militia tasked with defending the Highlands of the Hudson River from British attack. To this end he built two forts and stretched
a giant chain across the river to keep the British forces in New York City from sailing northward.

He was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1776 but was absent from it on other duties at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

On March 25, 1777, he was commissioned a brigadier general in the
Continental Army.
In June 1777, he was elected at the same time
Governor and
Lieutenant Governor of New York. He formally resigned the Lieutenant Governor's office and took the oath of office as Governor on July 30.[7] He was re-elected five times, remaining in office until June 1795. Although he had been elected governor, he retained his commission in the Continental Army and commanded forces at Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery on October 6, 1777. He remained in the Continental Army until it was disbanded on November 3, 1783.

He was known for his hatred of
Tories[8] and used the seizure and sale of Tory estates to help keep taxes down. A supporter and friend of
George Washington, he supplied food to the troops at
Valley Forge, rode with Washington to the first inauguration and gave an impressive dinner to celebrate it. In 1783, at
Dobbs Ferry, Clinton and Washington negotiated with General
Sir Guy Carleton for the
evacuation of the British troops from their remaining posts in the United States. That same year, Clinton became an original member of the New York
Society of the Cincinnati and served as its president from 1794 to 1795.

National leader

In the early 1780s, Clinton supported
Alexander Hamilton's call for a stronger federal government than had been provided in the
Articles of Confederation. However, Clinton eventually came to oppose Hamilton's proposal to allow Congress to impose
tariffs, fearing that this power would cut into his home state's main source of income. He became one of the most prominent opponents to the ratification of the proposed
United States Constitution, which would grant several new powers to the federal government. After New York and other states had ratified the Constitution, Clinton focused on passing constitutional amendments designed to weaken the powers of the federal government. In 1791, three years after the ratification of the Constitution, the states ratified the
United States Bill of Rights.[2]

Twentieth-century historian
Herbert Storing identifies Clinton as "Cato", the
pseudonymous author of the
Anti-Federalist essays which appeared in New York newspapers during the ratification debates. However, the authorship of the essays is disputed.

In the
1792 presidential election, he was chosen by the nascent
Democratic-Republican Party as their candidate for vice president. While the Republicans joined in the general acclamation of Washington for a second term as
president, they objected to the allegedly "monarchical" attitude of Vice President Adams. Clinton was nominated rather than
Thomas Jefferson because the
Virginia electors could not vote for Washington, and for a second Virginian. Clinton received 50 electoral votes to 77 for Adams. His candidacy was damaged by his anti-Federalist record and by
his narrow and disputed re-election as governor in 1792. (He won by only 108 votes, and the substantial anti-Clinton vote of
Otsego County was excluded on a technicality.)[2]

Threats to conquer Vermont

The land that is in the present day the state of Vermont was before 1764 a disputed territory claimed by the colonies of New Hampshire and New York. During 1749–64 it was governed as a de facto part of New Hampshire and many thousands of settlers arrived. In 1764 King George III awarded the disputed region, then called the New Hampshire Grants, to New York. New York refused to recognize property claims based on New Hampshire law, thus threatening the eviction of many settlers. Consequently, New York's authority was resisted by local authorities and the militia known as the
Green Mountain Boys. In 1777, having no further hope of rulings from the king or courts of England to protect their property, the politicians of the disputed territory declared it
an independent state to be called Vermont. Vermont's repeated petitions for
admission to the Union over the next several years were denied by the Continental Congress, in large part because of opposition from the state of New York and its governor George Clinton.

In 1778 Clinton wrote to some Vermonters loyal to New York, encouraging them "to Oppose the ridiculous and destructive Scheme of erecting those Lands into an Independent State."[11]

On March 2, 1784, the legislature of New York, with Clinton's support, instructed its Congressional delegates to "press Congress for a decision in the long protracted controversy" and that New York would have to "recur to force, for the preservation of her lawful authority"[12] and that if Congress would not act, then New York would be "destitute of the protection of the United States."

However, a Congressional committee recommended recognition of Vermont and its admission to the Union. The committee's recommended bill was opposed by New York's delegates and did not pass. Six years later the New York legislature decided to give up New York's claims to Vermont on condition that Congress would admit Vermont to the Union, and the new state was admitted on March 4, 1791.

Vice President

Clinton was selected as President Jefferson's running mate in the
1804 presidential election, replacing Aaron Burr. Vice President Burr had fallen out with the Jefferson administration early in his tenure, and President Jefferson often consulted with Clinton rather than Burr regarding New York appointments. Clinton was selected to replace Burr in 1804 due to his long public service and his popularity in the electorally important state of New York. He was also favored by Jefferson because, at age 69 in 1808, Jefferson anticipated that Clinton would be too old to launch a presidential bid against Jefferson's preferred successor, Secretary of State
James Madison.[2]

He served as the fourth
Vice President of the United States, first under Jefferson, from 1805 to 1809, and then under President Madison from 1809 until his death from a
heart attack in 1812. Seeking to avoid enhancing his vice president's stature, Jefferson largely ignored Vice President Clinton. He was unfamiliar with the rules of the
United States Senate, and many Senators viewed him as an ineffective presiding officer.[2]

Clinton attempted to challenge Madison for the presidency in the
1808 election, but was outmaneuvered by Madison's supporters when the
congressional nominating caucus chose him as the vice presidential nominee. Clinton's supporters nonetheless put him forward as a presidential candidate, attacking the foreign policy of the Jefferson administration. The Federalist Party considered endorsing Clinton's candidacy, but ultimately chose to re-nominate their 1804 ticket of
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and
Rufus King. Clinton received just six electoral votes for president as Madison consolidated support within the party. Although Clinton had effectively run against Madison, he received the vice presidential votes of most Democratic-Republican electors, who did not want to set a precedent of defying the choice of the congressional nominating caucus.[2]

After the 1808 election, Clinton and his supporters opposed the Madison administration, and Clinton helped block the appointment of
Albert Gallatin as Secretary of State. He also cast an important
tie-breaking vote that prevented the recharter of the
First Bank of the United States.[2] Clinton was the first vice president to die in office as well as the first vice president to die overall. Clinton was the first of two vice presidents to serve in the position under two different presidents (
John C. Calhoun was the other).

Clinton's nephew,
DeWitt Clinton, challenged Madison in
1812 after George Clinton's death. DeWitt Clinton won the backing of most Federalists, but was nonetheless defeated by Madison.[13]

Marriage and children

On February 7, 1770, Clinton married Sarah Cornelia Tappen (died 1800); they had five daughters and one son:

Legacy

Historian Alan Taylor described George Clinton as "The astutest politician in Revolutionary New York," a man who "understood the power of symbolism and the new popularity of a plain style especially when practiced by a man with the means and accomplishments to set himself above the common people."[2] His marriage to Cornelia Tappen strengthened his political position in heavily Dutch Ulster County.[6]

^Instructions to the Delegates of New York in the Congress of the United States, March 2, 1784, reprinted at Records of the Governor and Council of the State of Vermont. Eight volumes. Montpelier, Vermont, Steam Press of J. & J. M. Poland, 1873–1880

^Morgan, William G. (1969). "The Origin and Development of the Congressional Nominating Caucus". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 113 (2): 188–191.
JSTOR985965.

1. Prior to the passage of the
Twelfth Amendment in 1804, each
presidential elector would cast two votes; the highest vote-getter with a majority would become
president and the runner-up would become vice president. In
1792, with
George Washington as the prohibitive favorite to be elected president, the
Democratic-Republican Party fielded Clinton with the intention that he be elected vice president. Similarly, in both
1796 and
1800, the Democratic-Republican Party fielded both Aaron Burr and
Thomas Jefferson, with the intention that Jefferson be elected president and Burr be elected vice president.